How to Find the Perfect Accountant

Tips to help you choose the right financial advisor for your small business...

If you are looking to find an accountant that fits your specific business or professional needs, it can be difficult to find the perfect accountant. Different businesses have different expectations in what they require from an accountant.

It may be that you are looking for simple bookkeeping services, you may require compliance work completed or you may be looking for a quality outsourced finance director to help with those tough finance decisions and ultimately reduce your costs.

Here are some of the fastest and most reliable methods for finding the accountant which best fits your business needs:

Use a Professional Accountant Sourcing Service

You will be glad to hear that the term ‘professional service’ does not necessarily mean that you are going to pay over the odds for the right accountant. In fact most accountant finding services do no charge you anything as they receive a referral fee from the accountants they provide to you. These services are experienced in matching your individual needs to the accountants that are in your area, experienced in your business size and industry, and have glowing reviews from other satisfied businesses.

Although these professional sourcing services are often genuine, you will want to look out for the services that ensure you receive a free initial consultation for any accountant found through their service. This will help you decide whether the accountant is going to work well with you. A useful site to start your search is www.justaccountants.co.uk.

Friends/Business Network Referrals

The likelihood is that you have already established connections with similar businesses such as yours. These businesses may have accountants that they are extremely happy with – accountants that could also work well with you. You must be careful to ensure that the business that refers the accountant is indeed similar to your own. A good place to start is to compare your industry, business size and age, operations, location and future goals to that of your network of colleagues and business acquaintances and seek sound advice as to who they would recommend.

Searching Directories

If none of the above work out for you, you will need to carry out your own search. This is usually significantly more time consuming than the methods above. If you are prepared to do the ground work you could find a suitable accountant for your business.

You should make use of the Google Local Search which shows all of the accountants in your local area. To do this, simply type ‘Accountants in [YOUR AREA]’, for instance Accountants in Perivale. From here you can see a map indicating all of the accountants in the Perivale area and do your searches from here.

Final Tips:

Make sure you get more than one quote to ensure you are being charged a competitive rate – although price is not everything, you do not want to be taken advantage of.

New cloud accounting systems are becoming increasingly popular so if you want to get involved with this time saving technology, be sure to ask the accountant sourcing service expert to include cloud accounting in your specifications. It should also reduce the fees being quoted by the accountant.

Location is still a major advantage for business-accountant relationships, so try to find an accountant close by if you can.

Confirm with the accountant what it is, exactly, that you are paying for, do the fees include additional calls, meetings and business advice, or are these add on extras that attract fees.

“How to Find the Perfect Accountant” business advice article was written by Graham Tripp of Touch Financial.

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